As associate director of The Institute for Standards, Curricula and Assessments (ISCA), Day is co-designer of seminars and courses in lesson and assessment design—that is, of UTLA lesson design study. He specializes in the disciplines of mathematics, science, health, life skills, art, music and physical education. Before serving as UTLA President , and prior to that, UTLA/AFT Vice President, Day taught middle school students in his native East Los Angeles for 20 years. He taught science, health, reading, English, film-making, drama, and social studies. Between 1987 and 1989, Day led a team of 4 teachers at Griffith Junior High in one of the first instances in the United States of "looping" the students of a team-based school-within-a-school from grades 7 to 9.
As Vice President, Day was instrumental in the design and implementation of school-based management and LEARN. As UTLA President, he brought the LAUSD to the standards movement, helped reintroduce phonics-based reading to the district, negotiated the pay differential and role of National Board Certified teachers, negotiated Peer Assistance and Review (PAR) for teachers who receive below standard teaching evaluations, and made the time and content of professional development a negotiable contract item. ISCA and The Support Network for National Board Certification grew out of these changes. Day was also instrumental in the creation of the Collective Bargaining Institute at UTLA, which teaches Labor History and economics via mock negotiations in high school classrooms between student-teams coached by actual union organizers.
Since retiring after his terms of office as UTLA President, Day has been the full-time volunteer associate director of ISCA.
Education
M.A. B.A.
1969, UCLA, Philosophy 1965, UCLA, Philosophy
Teaching Credentials in Chemistry, Philosophy, General Science, Humanities, with teaching minors in English, Mathematics and Social Science
